All the familiar favourites are returning to the reserve. We’ve had a few sightings of Black-crowned Night Herons; never two at once, so I’m no sure if there’s one individual or more. We came across this one in a quiet cove. We watched as he starred at the water never shifting his gaze. He caught a fish so quickly that I missed the shot and only caught him with his back to me as he flew off with a large catfish dangling from his mouth.
The female Red-winged Blackbird has more subtle colouring than her male counterpart but is an attractive bird by any standard. I’ve only seen the female once before, the males seem to be less shy and their song fills the woods beginning mid-March, one of the first spring migrants to our area. This bird and her mate were in the open as I walked along and I took this shot.
The photo has an unusual composition that I like. The chickadee to the right of the photo and the leaves to the left provide balance. No Rule of Thirds here or the usual negative space in front of the bird. Some rules are meant to be broken!
I came across the first image when I was looking for some Canada Geese photographs for a recent post. I haven’t taken many birds in flight and hadn’t remembered taking this one. The geese were beginning their fall migration so if you pointed your camera towards the sky there were a lot of opportunities to try and capture them. My 300mm lens at F 5.6 worked in my favour and I was pretty pleased with the result.
The Great Blue Heron was on a fishing expedition and landed shortly after I took this photo. Always a favourite subject of mine on land or in the air.
Canada Geese can be unwelcome visitors, noisy, messy and overstaying their welcome. But they can make for wonderful subjects too. I came upon this bird last fall as the leaves were changing and the light was soft. These photos were taken at our favourite reserve, a place I’ve only visited a few times this spring. With the below average temperatures and the flooding this month many of the paths are under water. The nearby river is slowly beginning to recede but it will be a several weeks before we’ll be able to walk the park in its entirety.
This downy woodpecker had been busy excavating some bark but paused briefly in his work, taking a break. Perched on the branch facing a wide open sky gave the bird a rather contemplative look that I liked.
Both of these photos were taken in April on a rare day when it wasn’t raining. The rain and cold is breaking records this spring and flooding is affecting a large number of people in several provinces. I love taking photos of ducks when they appear to be steaming towards me, the first duck looks like he means business while the second one just a bit curious.
I’ve done several posts on Nuthatches, they remain in our area all year long. Even in winter when there’s nothing much about you can usually count on this little bird to put in an appearance. Their striking looks and tell tale call make them agreeable subjects.
It was our first time back to this particular nature reserve since last fall. It has a wonderful wildlife garden and the rest of the property consists of trails and woodlots. As we walked along one of the paths we came across this solitary waxwing out in the open. He sat on the branch in no hurry to leave. He made my morning.
I usually see downy woodpeckers excavating tree trunks, so it’s nice to photograph one perched on a branch for a change. This male stuck around for a few minutes, so I had more opportunity than usual to take some shots. The light was excellent and the weather was fine (sunny days are returning). All and all a wonderful return to spring and picture taking!
This is the very first sandpiper I have photographed. I have seen a few shorebirds along the river but they were never close enough to get a decent shot. This bird flew into a quiet inlet and was at the limit of my lens. I thought the rocky ledge he was perched on made for an interesting background and compensated for the fact that the bird could have been just a bit closer.
It’s too early to see goslings in my part of the country. It’s cold and grey outside so I went through my catalogues from last year for a bit of a spring lift and came upon these two. The goslings were taken within a day of each other last May. The first little goose looks just a bit younger and more tentative than the second who seems to be fixing me with a curious stare. I’m so looking forward to taking photographs like these again!
I was very pleased to come across this nuthatch earlier in the month. I’ve only been to the reserve a few times over the winter, so seeing this colourful character after such a long absence was a welcome sight.
I saw these ducks a little removed from a large group of noisy mallards. Throughout the summer I noticed a few pairs of these ducks at the lake. This particular afternoon they were enjoying a solitary swim. Less boisterous than the mallards, the calm water and the muted colours of the late fall seemed made for them. Although the same size and shape as mallards, their colouring makes me think they might be a mix of mallard and American Black Duck.
American Wigeons visit our region in the late summer and remain until the first frost. These photos were taken in November. I thought the reflections in the water were as central to the first photograph as the wigeon, so I chose to do a modest crop. In the second photo the swirls in the water framed the male duck nicely though he was definitely the star in this shot.
The first green heron arrived at the reserve last June and was joined by several others during the course of the summer, so we had many opportunities to photograph these beautiful birds. They seem to be solitary birds and we never saw them paired up at the lake. We’ve yet to see a nest. I enjoy watching the movements of the green and all the other herons as they transform their appearance when they strut, stalk and fish.
These are two of only a few photographs I took all winter. It was just (still is) too cold for my taste. Chickadees are extremely hardy though and were very obliging that day last December. I adjusted the white balance in Lightroom to remove the blue cast to the snow. It also brought out the brilliant white in the birds.
Late last fall we saw a northern shoveler for the first time. It is such a spectacular looking duck, from its bill to its colouring. I couldn’t have asked for more until…on our third sighting of the shoveler, this wigeon joined him for a swim around the lake. The day was cloudy but there were nice reflections in the water and then there were these ducks, they would dress up any occasion.
These photographs were taken at this time last year when the temperature was milder and the days sunnier than they are right now. I wonder if the pileated woodpeckers are preparing their nests regardless of the cold weather or have postponed this activity until it warms up a bit. This male woodpecker was excavating the same tree that we’ve seen them nest in in past years. We’re supposed to get some milder weather later in the week in which case I’ll stop by the tree to check on any activity.
I was using a long lens with a teleconverter the day I took these shots. During last year’s fall migration I had wanted to take some hooded mergansers that my regular telephoto lens just couldn’t capture. Walking on a path that borders the lake I caught sight of this Great Blue Heron close to shore. I don’t think I’ve ever been this near to one before and given where he stood and where I found myself, I couldn’t back up to get more of him in the shot. Pretty pleased with the way things turned out though.
We didn’t see many of these herons last summer. This striking bird made up for that though by giving us a lot of opportunities for photographs. He preened and napped and didn’t fly off while we were photographing him. The changing light due to the clouds passing overhead made the shoot challenging. The reflections from the lake also effected the lighting on the bird. In Photoshop I corrected the yellowish/green colour cast on the heron using a Hue/Saturation layer. This adjustment effected the surrounding greenery, making it less vibrant. I created a mask on the Hue/Saturation layer to correct this. Wonderful bird, wonderful day!
A nice thing about photographing chickadees is that if you don’t capture the one you’re aiming for there will be others around in no time at all. They dart by so quickly that you often end up with a well focused branch! They do slow down a bit in winter though when they’re more dependant on handouts. The chickadee in the first photograph was taken in August; it was molting and looked a little bedraggled. The second, taken in early December was sporting a sleeker look.
The reflections in the water are beautiful in their own right. I didn’t have to wait for long until this handsome pair swam by, improving an almost perfect scene. The wigeons show up every fall just as the leaves start to turn, and remain until the first frost. A regular feature of the season that I look forward to every year.
I don’t often see nuthatches on the ground searching for food, as in the first photo. More frequently I see them moving along branches and trunks of trees at challenging angles. The first two nuthatches are white-breasted, the third is red-breasted, not nearly as common in this part of the country and especially nice to see.
These photographs are the second in my duck-on-ice series. I am amazed at the resilience of mallards and the fact that this female can move along the ice, keep her balance and tolerate the cold. In this post I wanted to talk a bit about bringing out the detail in the frozen lake. The duck was a pretty impressive subject but I wanted to enhance the background to give the photos more interest. I did this by adjusting the Highlights and Shadows in Lightroom. I then used the detail extractor in Macphun Intensify CK. For the B&W I used Tonality Pro; by adjusting the Highlights, Shadows and Mid Tones and using colour filters which effect the tonality, even more detail was brought out.
This male Bay-breasted warbler, in fine breeding plumage, was migrating through our area last spring. Given the amount of red in his cap, I believe he is a mature bird. Their population is very dependant on the caterpillars of the spruce budworm and other insect infestations and their numbers rise and fall accordingly. They are a little easier to photograph than other warblers as they move about the branches and show themselves a bit more readily.
The lake had just frozen over and this female mallard was taking her first tentative steps on its surface. She was pretty surefooted and didn’t slip once as I watched her. There are at least thirty mallard pairs that remain at the reserve all winter and we normally see them on the river side of the reserve where some of the water remains ice free. This is the the first of two sets of photographs I took of this mallard which I’ll be featuring in the next week or so.
February 2 was Groundhog Day in Canada and the U.S. and it was reported that the “official” Canadian groundhogs did not see their shadows (yes we have two). The story goes that when this happens we’re in for an early spring. If this holds true, I’ll be featuring ducks in open water before too long!
Nuthatches are tiny aerial wizards and acrobats hanging onto trees at impossible angles. They obligingly remain all year, these first two shots were taken in early January. I like their distinctive nasal call, which is often heard before they make an appearance. Normally quite shy, nuthatches are more assertive during the winter hoping for some seed as I pass them along the trail.
I featured this eastern screech owl earlier in the month. In that series he was inside a tree cavity, on this day he was perched on a broken tree branch nearby. As this owl blends in so well with his surroundings, if I hadn’t been looking for him where I’d seen him before I would have missed him. All three photos had a tremendous colour cast caused by the leaves. In the first two, I used the Color Balance and Hue/Saturation in Photoshop to correct it. The colour cast was too pronounced in the third photo to fix, so I turned it into a black and white using Tonality Pro in Photoshop. As someone said, any day you spot an owl is a good day, this was an excellent day!
When I set up my gear that morning I was hoping to take some photographs of hooded mergansers I had seen the day before. They usually remain just out of range of my favoured lens, so I had my 300mm lens with me instead. There were no mergansers that day but I did come across these wood ducks along the lakefront. I couldn’t move back far enough to capture the entire bird so I took portrait shots instead. No two days in photography are the same. There are disappointments sometimes, but I know before too long something else will strike me and I’m off…
In the spring with their goslings and in the fall when the leaves change colour, these are my favourite times to photograph Canada Geese. The goose here appears to be doing the two-step, the vegetation serving as the backdrop. The reflections in the water and the soft fall light enhancing the scene.
Palm Warblers are known to stay low or on the ground but this bird went his own way and remained high up in the pines, darting in and out of the branches catching insects in mid flight. You have to be patient with warblers but the rewards are worth it. In the eastern part of the country we are treated to yellow palm warblers, the western variety are a duller colour. These warblers migrate through our region in the spring and fall. After spending the winter months due south (the birds not me), I look forward to their return again in May.
I took these photos last fall. Many birds had already migrated but this gull had not moved on yet. It was perched so nicely on this fallen tree and shifted positions several times before it flew off. It was doing a fine impression of two bookends. Ring-billed gulls are among the most common gulls in North America, are usually seen in groups and are known to be loud and opportunistic feeders. I thought that this solitary gull, standing quietly, taking in its surroundings an impressive sight. I was pleased to have seen it as I was walking by on that November afternoon.
Chickadees are the most acrobatic of birds and they’re fun to capture as they fly in and land nearby. They never stay still for long so I’m always pleased to get a decent close up shot. As the weather gets colder they do linger a little longer though hoping for some seed from passersby. They are also one of the few birds that can lower their body temperature to conserve energy on cold winter nights.
Cardinals are “all weather” birds that remain throughout the year and I have photographed them in every season. This was taken in October on a day when the light was nicely filtered and both the bird and the background colour mesh well together. The conditions were perfect with a very cooperative subject in no hurry to leave.
For two years in a row we’ve seen a solitary eastern screech owl in the reserve. As they blend in so well, you have to search hard to find them. We came upon this owl last April, and we continued to see it for several weeks in the hollow of the tree or perched on a nearby branch. I look forward to seeing one again this spring.
Although relatively common, I had never seen a northern shoveler before and couldn’t believe my luck when I spotted this solitary shoveler in late November. Their spatula-shaped bills give them a distinctive and comical appearance. We went back to the same area in the reserve for several days in a row and saw him each time. However, when we returned after a snowfall to check on him he had left. Like other Canadian “snowbirds” he was headed south no doubt.
The eastern phoebe in this photo landed in the perfect place to be photographed. The fall leaves add an additional bit of colour to the scene. This was taken in October. The bird could be looking back at the summer just ended. (I know I was.) Phoebes are a sure sign that spring is on its way as they are one of the first migrants to return to our area. I look forward to spotting my first one of the season.
I usually see downy woodpeckers on the vertical as they work their way up and down tree trunks searching for insects. So it was nice to see the first bird in a landing pattern on the tree branch if only for a minute. It was windy that day and it had ruffled his head feathers. I came upon the second bird as he was feeding on Staghorn Sumac something I’ve only seen in the fall. Most of the year they seem to prefer an insect diet.
We had a wonderful fall, not too cold, not too windy. The leaves remained on the trees for a good long time making for wonderful reflections on the lake. I took the first photo as the mallards swam towards shore; the colour of the water and the patterns they created are as much a part of the photo as the ducks. The second photo taken on a dull day a few days earlier is all about the duck!
BELINDA GROVER PHOTOGRAPHY 